


Awakening

by Capricornbread



Category: Tales of Symphonia
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-08-31 23:17:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20248279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capricornbread/pseuds/Capricornbread
Summary: A fancy dinner party does not go to plan. Sangria is involved.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic briefly references "Blame the Snow" by user Dionte.

Zelos stood solemnly by the table of hors d'oeuvres, pretending like a radish cut into the shape of a rose was the most fascinating thing he had ever seen in his life. He was tired of these sorts of dinner parties and didn't feel like putting on his usual charming show, in fact he was just tired in general. He wasn't even cheered up when Princess Hilda approached him to thank him for rescuing her from the Pope's schemes. She had offered to slip away and show him just how thankful she was, but he just smiled warmly at her and feigned obliviousness toward her suggestion, coming up with some excuse or other to spare her feelings.

He dared a glance around the room and saw that his companions all seemed to be enjoying themselves, although somewhat awkwardly in the case of Lloyd. His gaze drifted to where Colette was standing, talking, smiling genuinely like she always did. Boy, she was cute in that dress. She looked away from her conversation partner and glanced toward him, as if she could feel his appraisal. He smiled as their eyes met, but she jerked her head in the other direction so fast she might get whip-lash.

He frowned at the back of her head before looking back down to the radishes. She had been doing that a lot ever since what had happened in Flanoir. Never meeting his gaze for very long. He had caught her staring at him a few times, when she thought he wasn't paying attention, but every time he would look back he'd only catch the shy whirling of her golden hair. Had walking in on him and. . . uh. . . what's-her-name been that traumatic?

"I'm such an idiot," he stuffed the radish into his mouth as he muttered angrily. Take that, fancy garnish! It didn't taste good, but at least now it wasn't sitting there on the table, taunting him with its perfection. He looked across the room at Colette again just in time to see her face spinning away from him. See? That was weird.

Once the dancing started, Zelos managed to enjoy the party a little more. He even got the chance to share a dance with Colette and things almost felt normal between them, except for the way she was still not quite meeting his eyes. But she smiled as he twirled her and he smiled as her dress twirled with her. After they parted he had been promptly whisked away by one of Princess Hilda's friends for the next dance and he only narrowly escaped yet another round by excusing himself to go get a drink.

Colette had beaten him to the drink table and was sipping a cup of. . . oh.

"Yo, Colette," she looked up from her drink toward him, "how much of that have you had?"

She beamed back at him, "Oh, um, the people working at this table have been very generous. I've had three glasses of this punch, it's really delicious."

"Uh-huh. . . And you know that the 'punch' you're drinking is actually sangria, right?"

A blank stare.

"It's fruit and wine and brandy," he explained.

Colette looked down into her mostly-drained cup, "Oh. Is that why I feel dizzy? I thought it was from dancing."

Zelos couldn't help but laugh and Colette's face flushed, both from her embarrassment at the mistake and from the effect that the alcohol was starting to have on her.

"I'm sorry, my drunken little angel, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut you off," he took the cup from her hand and she stumbled a little, as if it had been the only thing holding her upright. He put his arm out for support and she muttered one of her usual apologies about being too clumsy. He hastily downed the rest of her drink and handed the empty cup off to one of the servers standing behind the drink table, "This little beauty doesn't get any more of the strong stuff this evening, okay?"

"Yes, Chosen One," was the terse response.

"Come on," Zelos steered Colette on wobbly legs in the direction where Raine was chatting with an upper-class gentleman. He smirked to himself at the way she was subtly touching her own hair and leaning in almost imperceptibly toward her conversation partner. Man, he hated to spoil the Professor's fun, especially if the topic was as sexy as her body language implied. He sighed and walked closer to the pair.

"No, I agree, the architecture of it is simply incredible. . ."

Okay, so maybe he didn't mind interrupting after all.

"Hey, Professor, could you take care of Colette?" he decided to forgo any silly nicknames; he was already hindering Raine enough without also flirting with her in front of this guy.

Raine looked at Colette with understanding, then back to Zelos, one eyebrow arched, "Is this your doing?" She looked ready to smite him down with Photon.

Zelos feigned hurt, but Colette answered for him, "No. This isn't Zelos' fault. Um, I didn't know that the punch was. . ." her voice trailed off and she looked down at her shoes, "I'm sorry."

With a sigh of exasperation, Raine excused herself from the handsome paleontologist she had been talking to and ushered Colette gently away from the party toward the ballroom's exit. As they were leaving, Colette turned and waved to Zelos, fully meeting his eyes for the first time that evening and grinning happily. He waved back, but the wink may have been too much, because she spun back around so fast that Raine had to keep her from falling. Maybe dinner parties weren't so bad after all.

* * *

After a few glasses of sangria (minus the fruit and wine and whatever else made brandy into sangria), Zelos decided he had had enough excitement for one evening. He made the rounds through the party one last time, saying his goodbyes to all of the pretty debutantes, who whined for him to stay just a while longer. He found Lloyd having an extremely animated conversation with Genis and Regal and quickly explained that he was going to turn in early and that the Professor had already left with Colette, so they could stay as long as they like without worrying. If there was one thing rich people were good at it was partying until far too late into the night.

"See you tomorrow, Zelos," Lloyd said before starting back into his retelling of some battle or other.

"Later, bumpkin." And with that he slunk out of the ballroom, glancing over his shoulder to enjoy Lloyd's glare and make sure no ladies were following after him. He was ready to just go to bed. Alone.

When he got back to his mansion all the lights were off. It was late, so Sebastian was no doubt asleep and he guessed that Raine and Colette had turned in already as well. He wasted no time in quietly creeping up to his room, the sliver of moon peeking through his curtains enough light to strip off the frillier parts of his outfit until he was just in pants. He yawned and pulled the ribbon out of his hair, running a hand absently through the braid until the wavy strands fell loosely around his shoulders. He plopped down onto his bed, sighing into the mattress and turning to face the opposite wall. Two big, blue eyes reflected moonlight back at him from the other pillow, less than six inches away.

"WHOA," he sprang backwards away from Colette, catching himself on his forearms as he toppled out of the bed.

Colette sat up, the covers falling away to reveal those adorable pink pajamas. He shook his head. What the hell was going on?

"S-sorry. Did I startle you?"

"Uh. Yeah. A little, " he replied dumbly.

Colette fidgeted with a strand of her hair for a moment before looking at him resolutely, "I-I want to ask you something."

"Is it something that required ambushing me in bed?" he felt like there should be some innuendo to his words, but he was so genuinely confused that all he could offer was. . . well. . . confusion.

She nodded and patted the spot next to her as an invitation to come sit on the bed. He looked around to make sure there wasn't someone else she might be motioning to before uncomfortably perching on the edge of the mattress, leaving as much space between them as possible. "Are you okay, Colette?" the words were soft, but even a whisper was easy to hear in the heavy silence between them.

She nodded again, but misunderstood his question "Yeah. I don't feel dizzy anymore." Well, at least she had sobered up a little, that was somewhat comforting.

"I, uh, I-I want to know more about. . ." her face was the bright-red hue of the sangria she had been drinking, "I want you to show me how you take your mind off everything."

What?

WHAT?

He stared at her with wide eyes, mind reeling, trying to comprehend, trying to catch up. Failing.

Was she really asking him to. . . ? Propositioning him. . . ? This was impossible. He had already fallen asleep and was having a brandy-fueled dream.

But when he looked into those endless blue eyes, curious and earnest, he knew that this moment was real.

"Colette," his voice was hoarse, so he cleared his throat and tried again, "Colette, this isn't a good idea."

Not a good idea. Yeah. Right. That was putting it mildly. But he was at a loss. He couldn't just reject her as if she was another Princess Hilda. Hell, he didn't want to reject her. And when she crawled across the space between them he didn't have the willpower to step away. She was close enough for him to smell the alcohol on her breath and that sweet, wistful smell that was unique to her. He glanced down at her lips and felt himself leaning forward. Brandy swam through his head, pushing him forward until he could feel her exhale against mouth. His heart was thrumming crazily, like a schoolboy with his first crush, scary and exciting and so wildly exhilarating.

And then he was kissing her and she was kissing him. Awkwardly, chastely, tenderly. His mouth moved on hers, inhaling long draughts of her scent, her taste. He could feel himself forgetting everything but her, one of his hands moving on auto-pilot to wrap around her waist, pulling her closer, pulling her body against his bare chest, only her thin nightclothes separating them. Heat radiated between them and colored their movements with a growing hint of desperation. His obvious hunger for her drew a soft mewl from her lips.

Holy. Shit.

That tiny, wanton noise brought him crashing back to reality with all the paralyzing weight of what he was doing. He jerked away from her, stepping off the bed and looking down at her surprised face. At her lips that were slightly pinker than normal, slightly puffier. Looking at them made him feel guilty.

He could not do this. "I can't do this."

She looked. . . sad. Tears were welling up in her eyes, threatening to spill down her flushed cheeks, threatening to break his confused heart.

"D-don't you w-want to touch me? I-I thought this is what you did with the girls you like."

His hand was trembling when he reached out to tuck a golden strand of hair behind her ear.

"Who, those girls? I don't like them," his honesty sounded too loud in the moonlit room. He sighed, running his fingers across his scalp and searching the ceiling for the correct words. For any words. "Colette, what I do with those girls doesn't mean anything to me and it definitely doesn't mean anything to them."

He sat down next to her on the bed again, looking seriously into her searching eyes, "But when you do like someone, then it does mean something. . . And I'm not ready for how much this would mean to me."

He wasn't sure if she understood what he meant, but she nodded slowly, "I-I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it, my sweet little angel," he tousled her hair gently and grinned, "You should sneak back to your own room before the others get back. Or I probably won't live to see morning."

Colette smiled back and hopped unsteadily off the bed, wobbling to the door before turning back toward him.

"Thank you, Zelos."

And then she was gone and Zelos flopped backward onto the mattress, reaching a hand to his lips where he could still almost feel the warmth of her kiss.

Man, he was going to be so hungover tomorrow morning.


	2. Chapter 2

The sun was too damn bright. Zelos woke up with his forearm draped across his face, still laying on top of the blankets where he had passed out the night before. Something weird had happened last night. He struggled to sit up and stretched his achy joints. His mouth had the same climate of Triet desert. Mouth. Lips. Colette.

His head folded forward into his hands. What was he supposed to do now? But he already knew the answer to that question: absolutely nothing. He would summon his willpower, go downstairs, and act perfectly normal. Smile, flirt with Sheena, and not breathe a word of last night to anyone. Ever.

Not just to avoid the literal murdering that would follow at the hands of. . . well, probably everyone. But also because, as far as he knew, last night had just been a drunken mistake by Colette. Man, why couldn't his mistakes ever be that good?

He shook his head. No. Not good. Mistake.

"Just keep telling yourself that," his voice came out sounding hoarse and resigned. His hands dragged down his face as if trying to wipe away the memory of how soft she had felt. "Get it together, Zelos. It's not like this was the first time you've ever had a girl in your bed."

But it hadn't even been sex. It had just been a kiss. A tame, innocent kiss that somehow had felt more intimate than an entire night of sex. Hell, than an entire lifetime of sex. It had been beautifully vulnerable, like a first kiss.

First kiss.

Oh shit.

Had that been Colette's. . . ? It had to have been. Zelos groaned and hid his face in his hands again. How could he have been so stupid? So weak? So. . . so. . . typical of him.

He was such a disappointment that he couldn't even meet his own low expectations.

There was a knock on the bedroom door followed by Sebastian announcing that breakfast had been set out, his voice all terse professionalism.

Well, looks like it was time to face the firing squad. He got out of bed stiffly, dressing in his normal clothes and throwing his tangled hair into a high ponytail.

A cheerful smile pulled up the corners of his mouth as he sauntered into the dining room and gave a loud, "Good morning, everyone!" But there was no "everyone" at the breakfast table, just Colette, picking idly at an omelet. She winced at his boisterous greeting and he couldn't tell if she was hungover or just unhappy to see him.

Either way, she smiled up at him, "Good morning."

"Where is everybody?"

"Oh, mostly not awake yet, I guess. Professor Raine said the others didn't get back until just a few hours ago. She was just here. Um, she put all this food on my plate and told me to eat, and then said she was going out for awhile," Colette looked winded from her explanation, staring down at her plate again.

Zelos took a seat across from her, his eyes also fixed somewhat awkwardly on the food. There was a little pile of green vegetables that had been picked from Colette's otherwise untouched omelet.

"Not a fan of the bell peppers?" he hadn't even realized the silence was uncomfortable until he broke it.

She nodded, "I don't feel very hungry, but I'm trying my best."

Zelos watched her take a small bite, "You don't have to, you know."

Colette looked up at him, her head tipped to one side with confusion.

"Always try your best, I mean. It's okay to make mistakes sometimes," he looked down at his own empty plate, unable to meet her gaze.

"L-last night. . ." her voice was so soft that he barely heard it at all, but the words brought his wide eyes squarely back to her face. A blush was spreading over her cheeks, but she didn't falter as she continued, "Last night wasn't. . . a mistake."

Zelos stared back at her, his lips slightly parted in surprise. How could he respond to that? He fought back the urge to jump over the table and. . . no he could not think about that right now. A smile crept up from the warmth in his chest and rested on his lips, "Colette, I-"

"Wow! Look at all this food!" Lloyd burst in with all the quiet subtlety of someone casting Indignation Judgement in the dining room. The pair sitting at the table both winced, but Lloyd didn't seem to notice and took a seat next to Colette, eagerly spooning food onto his plate, "I'm starving!"

The rest of their breakfast was nothing out of the ordinary, Zelos and Colette both slipping back into their usual roles as they chatted with Lloyd about the party the night before.

"Why'd you guys leave so early, anyway?" Lloyd asked past a mouthful of toast. After giving Colette a sideways glance and seeing her face starting to go fuchsia, Zelos just smiled and replied, "It was a long day. Besides, what would my darling hunnies think if I started to get ugly bags under my eyes from staying up too late?"

Lloyd made a sound of disgust in the back of his throat, but didn't press the issue.

Slowly the rest of their group filtered down to join them, everyone looking tired, but happy. The day was spent planning what their next move was going to be, Lloyd talking incessantly about needing to get stronger and wanting to compete in the Coliseum. The usual noise and bustle was something that Zelos usually found soothing, distracting him from his own thoughts. But today was different, he didn't want to be distracted. He wanted to talk to Colette.

It was late evening before he finally found his opportunity, tapping gently on her shoulder while everyone else was distracted, "Hey, Colette, can I talk to you for a sec?" She nodded and he gestured for her to follow him. They walked in silence to the top floor of the mansion and it wasn't until Zelos had opened a window and was stepping carefully onto a narrow ledge outside that Colette finally asked, "Um, w-where are we going?"

"If I told you that now it would ruin the surprise, my sweet angel. Just trust me for a few more minutes," he gave her a wink, grabbed a brick that jutted out from the side of the building more than the others, and hoisted himself easily onto the roof. When he reached down to grab Colette's hand she was already following him up and he caught her easily as she struggled to find stable footing, pulling her up to sit beside him.

"Oh wow," was all she said as she looked across the darkened outline of Meltokio. From their vantage point they could see all the way down to the front gates, the city sloping down underneath them and the distant horizon reaching up to meet a sky full of stars. Colette leaned back on her palms and looked with that innocent wonder up into the endless universe overhead. Zelos was also looking on with eyes filled with wonder, but he wasn't looking at the sky. He was looking at the way Colette's skin softly reflected the moonlight. The way her eyes mirrored the stars, millions of tiny lights glowing on a background of blue. She closed her eyes as a warm breeze swept through her, sending strands of gold reaching out to lightly caress Zelos' exposed shoulder. A shiver ran down him.

"You know, looking at the stars has always made me feel safe. Like even if I fail maybe it doesn't matter so much, because there's still so many beautiful things that we can't even touch," she stretched her hand up, as if she was going to pluck one of the lights from the sky, "I wonder if these are the same stars I grew up looking at. In Sylvarant, I mean." An endless moment of silence passed between them before her eyes found his, "What was it you wanted to talk about?" 

She shifted uncomfortably and he realized he was still staring at her, through her, with that same worshipful intensity. He cleared his throat, "I just wanted to make sure you were okay after our little rendezvous last night," his tone was too flirty and the words were too flippant, the real concern behind them not quite showing through.

"I-I think so," she blushed and looked down into the space between them, but continued, "Is it always like that? My body felt so warm all over and my heart was beating so hard," her eyes closed as if replaying the memory behind her eyelids, "and it sort of felt like falling backwards."

"That sounds like some potent sangria," was all he could joke in response, but he couldn't help but grin at her.

"Oh, so that's what it was," there was a note of disappointment in the statement and the conversation ebbed into another silence.

Dammit.

He took a deep breath to steady a level of nervousness he hadn't felt in ages, "Hey, Colette. . . There was something else I wanted to talk to you about."

He felt himself leaning in toward her slightly, as if her big eyes were drawing him in. But he was careful to still leave that comfortable distance between them, trying to turn off that part of his brain that urged him to lean just a little bit farther. . . And then she suddenly closed the distance herself, leaving a soft, timid kiss on his parted lips. Their faces were almost touching when she smiled and softly whispered, "It still feels like falling."

Zelos smiled and joked, "You got me." And words were truer than she could know.

"Ah! I'm sorry, you were about to say something and I. . . I interrupted you."

He couldn't hold back a chuckle, plopping down onto his back and only half surprised when Colette joined him, her head resting in the crook of his shoulder.

"Don't worry about it. It wasn't that important," and in that moment, with her so close to him, it was true.

He thought about what Colette had said as they looked up at the stars. About beautiful things that couldn't be touched.

Not yet anyway.


End file.
